The After Party
by Cueball
Summary: There's an odd sadness around her, she looks depressed... So out of character... AerisRude...


_Reno... How do you do it? You took the woman I liked and made her your own... Eh, maybe it was inevitable, since that time you asked me how much I liked her, and I said it was just a crush... But it wasn't... It was more than that... _

_Her personality... _

_Those wine colored eyes... _

_The way she tucks a loose strand of hair behind her ear... _

_The way she'd blush during training, when Zangan said something rude... _

_But most of all, her determination, she never gives up..._

_Heh, she's a lot like you Reno... Take good care of her for me... Because I swear to god, if you hurt her... I'll kill you... _

_That's what I'd wanted to say to him, during my best man speech... But I didn't... I couldn't... She's so happy when she's with you..._

_Man... I'm no good at speeches... All what came out was..._

"... Reno, Tifa, though you fought against each other during the Meteor crisis... I kind of knew you were destined for each other... I wish you both the best... Be happy, take good care of each other, and you'll stay together..."

_That was too mushy... Hmm... Maybe I should have thought about it more... I just assumed it would come out right..._

I stand there for a moment, unsure of what to do, I look to my right, Reno's Tuxedo is as ruffled as his Turk uniform, he could of at least tried to dress nicely... He's got that cocky grin of his on too, I guess it's just the way he is...

Tifa's smiling sweetly... She looks like an angel in that white dress.

I sit down, and the clapping starts, there's not alot of people here, mostly just friends, a couple of family members too...

Barett's acting as Tifa's father, not that he approves of Reno, but he wanted to see Tifa happy, seeing as how her real father was killed by Sephiroth.

That Yuffie chick is acting as her bridesmaid, she keeps looking over in my direction... She's not looking at me though... Tseng's sat next to me, they've been exchanging glances for the past few weeks...

As for the other's, Clouds not here, he's been a little pissed, that Tifa choose Reno over him... Funny though, she was trying to get him to notice her for the past couple of years now, and he's been interested in that ancient, then the moment he finds out about Reno, he sets of after Tifa... Hmm, he should make up his mind before he looses everything, Tifa got sick of waiting around, I have a feeling that the ancient won't wait for much longer, especially now that he's stood her up.

Valentine's disappeared, I saw him earlier, during the wedding, in his usual attire, I guess he doesn't like after parties.

Elena's talking to that Red beast, I forget it's name, but it's talking back to her, they seem to be happy...

Reeve couldn't make it, he's busy making Neo-Midgar.

Cid Highwind is dancing with his wife, Shera, I think.

As for me... I'm acting as Reno's best man, I was a little shocked when he asked me to be it, especially when he told me who the bride was, I didn't even know they were dating, maybe he kept it a secret, because I said I liked her...

Anyway... Back to this after party, I've had enough of it, their songs playing, don't know it's name, don't really care, but I have to get out of here, I need a smoke, to calm my nerves, this day's upset me enough already, I don't wanna see what could have been.

I walk around the edge of the room, and chance a glance at my friend and his new wife, they're holding each other closely, dancing. _Lucky bastard..._

Yuffie and Tseng are dancing near to them.

Barett and his daughter are also dancing, it looks strange, a big guy like him, dancing with a child.

The only ones that aren't dancing, are Elena, the dog thing and the ancient. My ex-teammate is in a deep conversation, with the big dog, they look happy...

But the ancient... There's an odd sadness around her, she looks depressed... So out of character... She was so lively when I used to keep tabs on her... But now... It's like she's hollow...

She looks up suddenly and straight at me, I wonder if she felt me looking at her?

I feel like saying something, my mouth moves to do so, but nothing comes out, she wouldn't hear me anyway... Not over the music and talking...

So I turn away and walk out through a door, onto the patio.

The sun is starting to set... Hmm... Had it really been that long? The wedding started at three PM, and it doesn't get dark till around eightish... Never mind... I reach up to my face and pull of my glasses, pretty pointless wearing them in the dark...

I put them in my inside pocket and pull out a pack of cigarettes, one of them comes out and sits between my lips, as I put the pack back and feel for a lighter.

"Need a light?" A voice comes from behind me, I turn my head slightly.

There stands the ancient, a lighter flipped open, the flame moving in the slight breeze. She's good if she can sneak up on me like that.

I move closer to her hand and light the cigarette.

"Thanks, ancient..." I say to her, and turn to look at the sun set.

"Your welcome, Turk." She replies, and comes to stand next to me.

"... Ex-Turk... The title died along with ShinRa..."

"Hmm..." She mutters softly, I glance at her, she just stands there, and lets the breeze blow her curled hair back... That's when I start to take notice of her... She's dressed nicely, a long blue dress, it shows of her curves nicely, a decent amount of cleavage, not too much to look slutty... There's no back to it, the material only starts to appear near the small of her back.

She starts to rub her arm, must be cold dressed like that...

"Here... You look cold." I say, as I offer her my jacket, she takes it with a slight smile... She looks cute like that... The jacket drowns her...

"Thanks..." She says, and we drift into a silence, I didn't really know what to say then, so I just looked back to the sun set... It looked...

"Beautiful..." We both mutter in unison... Few things in this world amaze me, but this sun set lights up the ocean in an amazing deep red and orange color, it lasts for a couple of minutes and then fades, everything turns a dark blue shade.

"Is that why you left the party?" She asks casually, I glance at her, then back to the ocean.

"When I used to live here... I never had the chance to watch the sea during a sun set... Then when I joined the Turks, it was rare to even see the sun, and even rarer to see it set... I don't know... I just find it relaxing..." That's normally alot of talking when it comes to me, but for some reason, I feel calm around this woman. "How about you, did you come to see the sun set?" I ask and take a drag from my cigarette.

"I came to talk to you actually... You looked sad in there..." I looked sad? Hmm, it's odd for somebody to be able to read me that easily.

"I could say the same for you... What happened to spike?"

"He... He's... Erm... I don't know... Before... I had to beat him of with a stick to make him behave, then Tifa and Reno hooked up, and he suddenly forgets about me and go's after her... He's just so messed up..." I hear her sniffle, oh god, please don't cry... I hate it when women cry...

I do something people would deem out of character for me, and pull the crying ancient toward me, I wrap my arms around her, unsure on where to place my hands. I decide on the back of her head, and she rested on my chest. Head head barely came up to my shoulder

"Shh... Don't cry... Just forget about Spike, he doesn't know how good he's got it, if he lets someone like you get away..." She seems to cheer up a little, her full blown crying eventually dies out to just the odd sniffle, I don't know how long we stay there, just holding each other, but I enjoyed it, I felt happy for once, my mind had forgotten about Tifa and Reno, and was just focused on the beautiful woman I was holding.

I looked up as the door opened and a red haired man and a brown haired woman stepped out. They were laughing until the noticed me holding the ancient.

"Oh... Um... Are we interrupting something?" Reno asked, with that cocky grin again. Tifa held a smirk that almost mirrored Reno's grin.

I shot him a glare, and reluctantly let go of the ancient. She sighed and stepped to my side.

"Aeris?" Tifa asked, her smirk grew more, if possible, she turned to Reno and whispered something, they both giggled and turned to go.

"We'll leave you two alone, later Rude, Aeris!" Reno said, and the two took off.

I sighed and looked to the ancient.

"... I guess the party's over..." She said, almost sad.

"I guess so..." I replied, she began to walk away, still wearing my jacket, when she got to the door, she looked back, then turned to go back in. "Aeris!" I called, she looked back at me with a smile, I think thats the first time I called her by her name.

"Are you hungry?" I asked.

She nodded.

"How's dinner sound?"

Her face lit up, which looked odd, with her mascara running, but she nodded. "So long as your paying."

I smiled slightly and walked over to her.

**Cueball's Notes Begin:**

Four and a half hours, a very stiff leg, six drafts, two phone calls and a conversation in the making.

It took me ages to figure out a way to make them actually be in the same place, I started with Rude watching her... That ended up being creepy... Next was when she was trapped in the Lab, that one was more creepier... Anyway, the point is, this was my favorite idea, I came up with it after getting back from my cousins wedding, and hell, I figured it was a good way to get everyone all together, without any tension, only problem was, that it makes it an Alternate universe fic, what with Aeris being back from the dead... Heh, not that anyone cares...

I liked writing this, and unless I'm mistaken, this is the first Aeris/Rude pairing on this site, the last, and only time I've seen them together was this parody thing, and even then it was only like a hundred word thing... So therefor, I christen this pairing, "AeRude.", I just think they work together really well.

Anyway, this fic is dedicated to "Madam Fluffy Pants" and to those that have always wanted to see the Big, bald Turk and the Flower girl together.

A special thanks to "Madam Fluffy Pants" who challenged and convinced me to write this thing in the first place.

If anybody else wants to challenge me to writing a pairing, just let me know by review or email, so long as it's not Yaoi i.e. Male / Male pairing, I'm up for it and I will do Yuri pairings, i.e. Female / Female.

And to anybody wanting a challenge, I would like a Cid / Elena pairing, and it must have the line: "That's a nice watch you got there." Be sure to let me know if your up for it.

Well, that's me done for today, make sure to review, or I'll send some blue suited guys around to your Gaff, to cut your toenails... With chain-saws...

Anyway, peace out, god bless the queen, so long suckers, or whatever you normally say to people instead of goodbye.


End file.
